While the federal government is set to legalize the drug for recreational use on Oct. 17, it will be business as usual for the city’s largest public transportation fleets, which both insist on drivers showing up to work clean and sober.

Matt Zablonski, the city’s project lead for the legalization of cannabis, said the city conducted an extensive review of its workplace policies over the past few months and determined there was no need to make any major alterations.

“At the City of Calgary we’ve already got an extensive substance-use policy — basically cannabis is just moving from the illicit side to the legal,” he said.

“Employees must report for duty fit for work.”

Calgary Transit employees must undergo pre-employment drug testing before being hired, although the city doesn’t have a policy calling for random drug and alcohol testing.

The Toronto Transit Commission began randomly testing employees for on-duty drug and alcohol use last May, after a judge agreed such testing was a matter of public safety. That city’s transit union is fighting the policy in ongoing labour arbitration.

Zablonski said while the city doesn’t have any designs on implementing random testing, managers who suspect a driver is impaired can have them tested.

“If a leader has reasonable grounds to believe someone is not fit, they have the ability to test them,” he said, noting an independent third party would have the ability to conduct a breathalyzer test for alcohol or take a urine sample to determine if an employee is under the influence of drugs.

“At this time we’re not considering random testing. It’s not something that’s clearly supported by case law. We already have an existing policy that has served us well.”

Energy giant Suncor has been battling to implement random drug and alcohol testing at its oilsands sites, and in February lost its case to overturn an injunction against its policy before the Alberta Court of Appeal.

Similar to Calgary Transit, Southland Transportation, which employs some 1,500 drivers across Alberta, including school bus drivers, said legal cannabis will be treated no differently than alcohol, with the implications for those caught driving under its influence equally severe.

“All drivers must show up for work fit for duty, which means not impaired,” said spokesman Jonathan Weal.

“We have a zero-tolerance policy for alcohol and we will continue to have that same zero-tolerance policy for cannabis.”

Weal said the company’s current rules dictate drivers can’t get behind the wheel within 12 hours of consuming alcohol, and the same limit will be imposed for cannabis use.

Given the sensitive nature of their work, drivers are pre-screened for booze and drug use prior to their employment, with Weal noting they don’t perform random testing for impairment. However, drivers involved in collisions are automatically tested, while those believed to be impaired can also be tested, he added.

And the implications can be serious for drivers caught skirting the policy.

“If you test positive for THC (the primary psychoactive ingredient of cannabis), if there’s any trace of it in your bloodstream, that’s it for you,” Weal said.

“We treat it just the same as alcohol. We wouldn’t expect people to have an alcoholic drink before they show up to work and we wouldn’t expect them to take cannabis, either.”

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